I usually don’t go out of my way to watch movies that deal with police corruption — not because I don’t believe corruption is rampant in major police departments across the country (I do), but because I get a lot of these types of stories from books and television. However, being the Hugh Laurie fan that I am, I decided to make an exception for Street Kings, as I was eager to see Laurie playing someone other than Greg House.
That desire turned out to be a bust on two fronts: first, Laurie put the same flippant, sarcastic spin on his Street Kings character that he puts on House; and second, the main plot of the film was your basic corruption story with nothing fresh or original to offer the audience.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Detective Tom Ludlow (played by Keanu Reeves) is an LAPD officer who has long since stopped following the department’s rules and regulations. He routinely goes on undercover assignments where the dictum seems to be, “Shoot first, and let the Captain spin the right story to the media.” That captain is Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker), and he does indeed take care of Ludlow — and the other guys in the unit, including Mike Clady (Jay Mohr), Cosmo Santos (Amaury Nolasco), and Dante Demille (John Corbett).
With Ludlow and crew cracking all the big cases in L.A., Wander is on the fast track to being promoted to Chief, and he promises to bring his boys along for the ride. The only potential obstacle standing in the way is Terrence Washington (Terry Crews), who used to be in Wander’s unit, but decided to go straight. Washington is now talking to Captain Biggs (Hugh Laurie) of Internal Affairs, which obviously could ruin a bunch of careers.
Then one day Washington is gunned down in a convenience store by two gangbangers. Ludlow happened to be there with him, and will likely get blamed for the incident since everyone in the department knew there was no love lost between the two former partners. Captain Wander is once again willing to destroy evidence to save Ludlow’s ass, but this time Tom can’t just let it go. The circumstances of Washington’s death make no sense to him, so he sets out to learn who put the hit on him and why.
The rest of the film then deals with Ludlow’s investigation as he races to find answers before Captain Biggs and Internal Affairs take him down. Along the way, Ludlow learns that corruption in the department runs even deeper than he thought, and no one’s loyalties or motives can be trusted.
My Reaction: Street Kings started off decently enough, and with a good cast involved, I thought the film had some real potential. The setup — that of Ludlow trying to get to the bottom of Washington’s killing — seemed intriguing and could probably have carried the film through to the end. But I didn’t like the actual handling of the plot (with the undercover agents, double-crosses, ulterior motives of the IA investigation, etc.) because it felt like too many other cop movies that have gone before this one.
As I mentioned above, I was disappointed in Laurie’s performance here. He was just Greg House with a different name and a different profession. I mean, when he first appeared on screen in the hospital, pulling the curtain to Tom’s room back and asking what happened, I felt as though I was watching House. Then he started popping gum (like Vicodin on the TV series), making wisecracks, and lying to the patient…. definitely House-like. I was hoping to see Laurie do something vastly different, as I’m sure other fans were. Oh, well.
I’m not even going to get into the corruption story and how Warden amassed all that cash and swag (or why he would build it into the wall of his house). I’m afraid that if I do, it will open my eyes to a bunch of additional problems and plot holes with the film.
I started off wondering how Street Kings could have fared so poorly at the box office despite starring Reeves and Whitaker, but the script speaks for itself. There’s nothing original here folks, so don’t bother wasting your time with it. I give the film 4.5 stars out of 10.